and when Hot Topic still had the red logo

It's not red anymore? (You can see how often I go to a mall and/or shop at Hot Topic.)

Timelies all!

Mr. S just wouldn't go to sleep last night, and he's been behaving terribly today(slapping Gary, throwing things, etc.) I just can't with him when he's like this.

I almost ignored the calendar reminder, but now I have beets roasting in the oven so I can make Nadiya's beetroot and feta pasta for dinner: [link]

Oh, hey, Tim's brother just told us that their dad's TB test is negative, so that's one less thing to stress about. I know it's been really weighing on Tim to not visit his dad while the test results were up in the air.

Can't fix any of the other stuff, but no TB and Tim getting to visit his dad again is pretty good.

That's good news in an overall crappy circumstance. I'm glad Tim can see his dad now.

meara, that video clip is priceless!

I support the Aeryn jet pack plan.

The vulture story was covered on npr. [link]

That is good news under bad circumstances, Tep.

The vulture story was covered on npr. [link]

Her summary is kind of where my head is now:

CHANG: Well, I mean, a lot of Joss Whedon's work has these deeply devoted fandoms, right? Like, whole fan communities have sprung up around "Buffy" and "Firefly." How have his fans reacted to all these allegations?

SHAPIRO: I think that there's a real urge to try to write him out of the narrative specifically. Like, looking at "Buffy," you know, and I'm a fan of "Buffy," I mean, that - it was a very important show to me, and that's why I was interested in writing this piece to begin with. When he was sort of cast by us as this feminist hero, we were thinking that like, oh, he brought Buffy to life. He gave us Buffy, you know. And not necessarily thinking, well, he also showed us that the world is full of monsters. And most of those monsters are men. And most of those monsters want to destroy Buffy, kill her, try to rape her, endlessly brutalize her. I mean, that's in his brain, too, you know.

I think that was where I was going on Facebook. But I don’t want to minimize his actions- but when I said I don’t think he understood what he was writing, I was specifically thinking of Spike- where in his mind he was writing this thing where of course he didn’t have a soul and therefore had to rape Buffy and then get a soul to be redeemed. But I think some of the writers and fans were seeing it as a love redemption arc. (Which is why that costume for the Buffy Bot was great, because Spike’s perfect Buffy is not sexbot Buffy)

I was specifically thinking of Spike- where in his mind he was writing this thing where of course he didn’t have a soul and therefore had to rape Buffy and then get a soul to be redeemed.

Right. Aside from all the instances of rape/sexbot/mind control that recur in his work (which are numerous), I'm now more conscious of his wrestling with that narratively. (Don't worry, this isn't his redemption arc.)

I'm certain in his mind there was something like, "Writers need to go to dark places. That's where the good stuff is." That's basically how he pitched Firefly to Tim (with a horrible rape/murder of Inara by Reavers planned in S2).

He's Spike, he's Warren/Andrew/Jonathan, he's Topher, he's Mr. Universe in Serenity, he's Xander's resentment /entitlement.

The comparison to Louis CK stuck with me, because I remember watching an earlier comedy special of his where he said something like, "I can't look at this rental car agent without imagining wrapping her long hair around my dick and jerking off in her face" - and I was like, "Whoa! He thinks that's how every guy operates, and he thinks he's being edgy but he's wayyyyy past that edge."